Pride Goeth Before a Party
by ImpracticalDemon
Summary: Written for Condacending (tumblr) for the Graylu siblings holiday fic exchange. Lucy and Gray agree to plan a small New Year's party together. Things get a little tense when Lucy decides to vary the guest list.


**Author's Note:**

This story was written for the Holiday Graylu Sibling Fic Exchange. Unfortunately, it was both delayed and shortened due to me being sick over the holidays and beyond.

I am hoping that this is just the main body of the story, with an epilogue yet to come. **Condacending (tumblr)** offered me the perfect wishlist (matching my own preferences just about exactly). I **very much wish** that I'd been able to do better justice to this, and hopefully I can in the future. Here are Condacending's notes:

· Characters portrayed as rational and down to earth who connect on a personal level

· Witty, comfortable conversation between them and their friends

· Dependable, emotionally there for each other

· Moments of normalcy in their life

· Canon compliant but enjoys AU spins on canon

 _~ Impracticaldemon_

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 **Pride Goeth Before a Party, or We All Make Mistakes  
** A Holiday Graylu Fic for **Condacending**

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Gray stood at the front window of Lucy's apartment watching the snow fall, arms crossed, shoulders tense, stance closer to defensive than appropriate for a comfortable night in with a much-cherished girlfriend. He managed to keep his tone reasonably even, at least.

"I thought it was just going to be the team. Natsu, Erza, Wendy, the cats… _maybe_ one or two others."

From her seat on the couch, Lucy studied the way Gray's muscles moved under his soft navy t-shirt and concluded that things were more serious than she'd realized. They'd done pretty well in the four months since becoming a couple: disagreements had been few, tempers had been held in check with the patience granted by new romantic love, and each of them had been carefully considerate of any known bruised spots or raw places in the other. Tonight wasn't going nearly as smoothly as usual.

"Well… I thought that since it was a New Year celebration, we should try to kind of reconnect to past friendships"— _and other important relationships_ —"and go a bit beyond the usual"— _for once_. Gray had always been slightly introverted, but he'd generally had fun at guild parties, and hadn't seemed to mind hanging out and having drinks with various guild members. Lucy wondered why she hadn't noticed sooner that between missions with the team, and time alone together, neither of them had been seeing their wider circle of friends much, and—

"Look, Luce, I appreciate the sentiment, but _we_ didn't decide to invite Lyon. Or Ultear. Not that they've accepted yet or anything, but… I dunno, I just wished you'd asked for my input first. We were doing this thing together, right? And does Erza know you've invited Jellal? Seems to me they've got a complicated kind of relationship—something that isn't exactly 'kiss under the mistletoe and it's all good now'. Again—not that anyone's accepted the invitations, but if they do then what? And I have no idea where Meredy's at, but she's had a rough time of it, and we don't know what the dynamics are between her and Jellal and Ultear. Plus, aren't they all, you know, wanted criminals?"

Hearing the sarcasm edging into his tone, Gray drew a deep breath while Lucy processed his comments, and then he turned from the window, determined to do things right. That included not shutting himself away, or using words or worse to push others—Lucy—away.

Lucy did her best to stop frowning, with mixed success. Although she knew it would probably be better to keep listening right now, she felt impelled to defend herself a little.

"I'm sorry I upset you," she said carefully. "I guess I was hoping we could bring people together a little—and I kind of had the impression that you were getting along okay with Lyon these days and—"

Gray dropped onto the floor in front of Lucy, eyes fixed on hers.

"It seems like you're trying to turn our little New Year's party into something different. Are you sure you weren't just looking for a chance to get me to talk to certain people you think I should be closer to? We know each other pretty well by now, right? And I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me or for selfish reasons, unless"—he broke off, suddenly wary of saying the wrong thing. Sometimes he used jokes to keep people at a distance.

Fortunately, Lucy reached down and poked him lightly on the forehead, saying:

"Unless it involves my rent, I know, I know, sheesh!"

Since she appeared to be genuinely amused, Gray let out a puff of laughter; it was a standing joke with their team that Lucy's scruples inevitably went out the window when her rent was on the line. The mood between them lightened.

"Okay, let me ask straight out, Luce: did you invite Lyon, and Ultear and Meredy, because they're connected to me?"

Lucy chewed her lower lip and then nodded slowly. "I guess that's a big part of it. I have a much better appreciation now for how complicated it is—since Tenrou especially—and since things seem a little more settled these days, I wanted to give you an opportunity to reach out a little. Ultear and Lyon are like family to you and… I know what it's like to realize too late that you could have done something to... to make things better... and didn't."

Gray pulled Lucy's forehead against his. For some reason, touching always helped when they were talking about the hard things.

"I'm sorry about your dad, Lucy. Really, really sorry. And I can see why not getting to see him again—especially the way things were between you—made you think of me and my totally crazy sort-of-family. Ur was deceived, and Ultear was deceived, abused, and manipulated…" He trailed off, unable to continue. It had gotten a lot better since he had finally met and fought Ultear, and learned so much more of the truth. He'd begun to make his peace with her, and even with losing Ur. There was still some way to go, however. He and Ultear weren't exactly in touch.

He heard a faint sigh from Lucy, and then she pressed an apologetic kiss to his temple. She cared about him too much to ignore his pain or her own mistakes. It gave him the strength to wonder whether her basic idea was all that wrong.

"I absolutely shouldn't have invited people—especially those people—without asking you first, Gray. I'm sorry, my bad."

"You wanted to surprise me?"

Lucy looked away, cheeks turning pink.

"Yes… But seriously, given the twinge of concern that made me ruin the surprise and tell you about the invitations after all, I should have known—admitted—that there was a problem. Right?"

Gray shrugged. He wasn't one to need big apologies once something was sorted out—although it helped that he knew Lucy honestly regretted what she'd done. "You'll tell me what you're thinking next time, right? So we're good. At some point I have to stop reacting so much every time you want me to face my past and try to make something good come out of it."

"Thanks… I wish I hadn't—"

"It wasn't a totally bad idea, though."

"Such a compliment!" Lucy was smiling, despite her words.

"Yeah, I could've put that better," Gray muttered. "How about I say that upon consideration, adding some outsiders to our team party seems like a good plan?"

"We could send a quick note to Lyon asking him to invite Chelia as well? Wendy would like that."

"Okay, good thought. Besides, that way I can pretend—he and I can both pretend—that we're being polite for the sake of the girls." His mouth quirked up at the corners, as he contemplated the idea of trying to get along with Lyon in a way that wouldn't total Lucy's apartment. Mind you, Flame-brain would be there too, so there were no guarantees…

Lucy couldn't resist running her fingers through Gray's soft dark hair. Gray could get a little inwardly-focussed at times, but he was also sincere about taking his friends' feelings into account, especially hers.

"I don't know about Jellal and Ultear, though," Lucy said hesitantly. "I mean, they probably won't accept anyway—and no, I hadn't forgotten the whole 'criminal charges' thing, I just wasn't too worried about it."

"Aw, what the hell," Gray replied. Lucy could see that he was now in his "I'll take'em all on" mood, where the challenge of the situation suddenly made him want to prove to everyone (mostly himself, in this case) that he could handle it.

"But—"

"Come on, Luce, don't back down now! Besides, I don't see any graceful way out of it unless you figure I'm fast enough to silence the messenger somehow." He gave Lucy what was no doubt intended to be a murderous leer, and she had to laugh.

"Okay, then. How about: we're just trying to show how good we are at being magnanimous in victory?"

"Of course. Also, it'll play out on _their_ side as doing something nice for Jellal and Erza—maybe. I still don't know exactly what the deal is between those two. I'm guessing that Ultear will want to give Meredy a chance to see people other than their own oh-so-fun-former-evil-doers group."

Lucy squeezed Gray's hand, and he looked up with a rueful smile.

"Yes, I do feel badly for Meredy. I think she got a raw deal. I mean, we both lost our homes and our parents the same way, but I found Ur, whereas she ended up devoted to the person who had caused all of her grief and loss in the first place. Poor kid."

"So it's actually a good thing to invite Meredy, right?"

"Right." Gray hesitated for a moment, then let go of his last desire to add "although you still should have told me first."

Lucy slid off the couch to sit beside him, silently acknowledging his forbearance, but he drew her into his lap instead. He hugged her close, and she laid her head against his shoulder.

"Thanks for not being mad, Gray. At least, not anymore."

"Thank you for giving me a chance to exercise my talent for almost-convincing excuses."

Lucy lifted her head and smiled at him. He smiled back, happy that they were in synch again. A few moments passed in enjoying each other's warmth and a few heartfelt kisses.

"So we're inviting Lyon and Chelia—mostly for Wendy's sake, as well as to avoid some of the more common Team Natsu dynamics—"

"I'll be so torn between thumping Natsu and thumping Lyon I'll be on my best behaviour," murmured Gray.

"—And we're inviting Jellal because _I_ think he and Erza might enjoy having some time together when the world isn't being threatened with disaster—"

"Right, the happy matchmaker approach—how on earth will you keep Mirajane away?"

"—And we're inviting Ultear and Meredy because _I_ think Meredy would appreciate a chance to get to know you better and we _both_ think she deserves to have some fun and meet people who haven't engaged in, um, terrible acts—"

"Have you seen the way Natsu eats?"

"Yes, and you aren't all that different." Lucy tried to look contrite when Gray glared at her and the temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees, but it came out as more of a smirk. "Sorry, sorry, I concede that your manners are generally better than his!"

"Hmph." Gray drew a little icicle heart in the frosty air, although he then had no idea what to do with it.

"C-c-cold, Gray!"

The air warmed up again and Gray's little creation vanished.

"There's a metaphor in there somewhere," he grumbled, as the icicle heart disappeared. "Or do I mean a simile? I'm not sure that Ur was any clearer on that stuff than I was."

Lucy ignored his rambling.

"So we're inviting Ultear in part because we're inviting Jellal and Meredy, and in part because _I_ think she could stand to see that a lot of us don't hate her."

"And because you think it will help me deal with things better too."

Lucy's expression became serious again. "I think she's like family to you, and vice versa. And since you are important to me, I want to do whatever I can for both of you."

"Alright, Lucy, fair enough. Just remember—"

"I will. This isn't a book, and I can't make people just do what I want, or make things turn out the way I want." The solemn expression left her face as she added: "Although, to be honest, it's much harder to make my characters do what I want than you'd think! I mean, I know it's a little ridiculous, but they can be completely _stubborn_ about things..."

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 **[END]**

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 **A/Note: Epilogue is intended to follow. I didn't want my Graylu sibling to have to wait any longer for this, however!**

All comments and reviews are appreciated. If you see typos or other little glitches, please send me a PM through your platform of choice. **\\(^u^)/**


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